Howard University to honor Cathy Hughes – naming its School of Communications after her

Cathy Hughes School of Communications naming ceremony on Oct. 23.

Howard University is set to honor media guru Cathy Hughes, by re-naming the historically black university’s School of Communications as the Cathy Hughes School of Communications.

According to sources from Howard’s Department of Development and Alumni Relations, the re-naming ceremony will take place on October 23.

Hughes has in the past donated up to US$4 million to the university.

Cathy Hughes has had a phenomenal career as an entrepreneur. She is the founder and chairperson of Radio One, Inc., the largest African American owned and operated broadcasting company in the United States.

Her unprecedented career has spawned a multi-media conglomerate that generates original content across the spectrums of radio, television and digital media. Her humble beginnings in Omaha, Nebraska, were not a deterrent to her success but rather part of the catalyst that fueled her ambition to empower African Americans with information and to tell stories from their perspective.

In 1999, Cathy Hughes became the first African American woman to chair a publicly held corporation, following the sale of 7,150,000 shares of common stock to the public. Since that time, she, along with her son and business partner Alfred Liggins, III, have grown Radio One, Inc. into a multi-media company that is an urban radio market leader with 56 stations comprised of hip hop, R&B, gospel and talk radio formats.